One would be surprised if there is anyone that still doubts Allen Onyema, Chairman of Air Peace’s genuine love and loyalty for Nigeria. The aviation top shot, for the umpteenth time, has proven that his love for his fatherland is inextinguishable.
He has been so unrelenting in his drive and determination to rescue the nation of challenges without fear or favour. This, he has been doing for years, even though some naysayers keep reading unnecessary meaning into the beautiful acts.
However, Onyema remains unperturbed, and instead, he has kept up with his flag-waving patriotism.
Last week, he silenced his critics with another act of fellow-feeling.
In a rare show of empathy, he honoured Nigeria’s sportsmen and women at a well-attended event described as an unprecedented sports initiative.
The two significant events, as gathered by Society Watch, took place in Lagos. The first was the unveiling of the historic Sports Diplomacy Wall of Fame at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, NIIA; while the other was a gathering of great sportsmen and women who shone like a million stars at a gala evening at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.
The honourees were Nigeria’s 1976 Olympic stars as well as members of the 1980 Green Eagles that won the country’s first-ever Africa Cup of Nations.
Onyema, in his prodigious magnanimous character, offered the sportsmen and women free domestic tickets for life and one international ticket yearly with 1.5-million-naira cash each.
With this, he has once again undoubtedly delivered a resounding slap to the face of his numerous doubters who insist on remaining blind and deaf to his incontestable humanity.
The Anambra State-born mogul continues to use his wealth to support helpless Nigerians. At every point, he keeps showing that legacy creation is more important than the creation of wealth for profit motives.
Many still easily recall how he came in handy when Nigerians were stranded in South Africa due to xenophobic attacks in September 2019. He sent his aircraft to South Africa at no cost to bring the distressed Nigerians back home, without collecting a kobo from the Nigerian government.
In 2020, at the peak of the COVID-19 crisis, many Nigerians were stranded in many parts of the world, Onyema again dispatched his aircraft to rescue persons and deliver relief materials at no cost to the persons or government. Again in 2023, when a crisis erupted in Sudan, Onyema sent aircraft to Egypt to evacuate stranded Nigerians.
